


The Best Laid Plans (of Mice and Men)

by Arboreal



Category: Captain America (Movies), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Civil War Team Iron Man, Developing Relationship, M/M, Moving On, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Tony Stark Has A Heart, do not repost to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21875977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arboreal/pseuds/Arboreal
Summary: His Dark Materials AUIt was Annalise who noticed their small visitor first.“Tony,” the spider daemon said softly, skittering up the collar of his dress shirt, two of her eight legs resting delicately against his cheek, “Don’t startle them, but I believe we have a guest.  Look, by the coffee table.”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 103
Kudos: 1513
Collections: 2019 WinterIron_Holiday_Exchange





	The Best Laid Plans (of Mice and Men)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [drunkonwriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkonwriting/gifts).



> Thank you to [dls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dls/pseuds/dls) for the beta and the support!
> 
> Also thank you to [Skye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skye_wyr) for helping me out of a jam!

It was Annalise who noticed their small visitor first.

“Tony,” the orb-weaver spider daemon said softly, skittering up the collar of his dress shirt, two of her eight legs resting delicately against his cheek, “Don’t startle them, but I believe we have a guest. Look, by the coffee table.”

Careful not to make any sudden movements, Tony slowly raised his head from his Starkpad where he had been going over last minute details for the meeting he was frankly dreading the following day and looked in the direction Annalise had indicated. Sure enough, he could see a small, twitching nose emerging from behind one of the table legs, soon followed by a furry head with wary but curious black eyes.

“Hello there,” Tony said in a gentle voice. 

The twitching nose stilled for a moment at the sound of Tony’s greeting, but the tiny daemon didn’t respond except to come a little further out from behind the table leg. Tony didn’t recognize the little daemon, some type of field mouse if he had to guess, but that wasn’t surprising. Aside from the Avengers teams permanently stationed there, the Compound housed an ever changing roster of new recruits waiting for their assignment to one of the Accords bases around the world and established members returning to the Compound for specialized training, not to mention a small army of support staff. A new face was anything but unusual.

Tony glanced towards the entrance to the common area, expecting to see the daemon’s human in the doorway at any moment and prepared to greet them as well, but no one appeared. He frowned, waiting, but there was nothing to indicate there was anyone but Tony and the two daemons here in the late-night stillness.

Tony looked back at the little daemon still watching him and felt a rush of sympathy for it and its bonded at what the absence suggested. Human-daemon pairs could learn to separate for long distances through years of study and practice, that was true, but it took time and dedication and even then not all pairs were successful. Combined with the stigma attached to the ability, there were vanishingly few pairs who even attempted it. 

Voluntarily, at least.

Forced separation had been a despicable practice used throughout history, usually as a form of torture and coercion. It had been a favorite tactic of the Ten Rings, his jailers repeatedly pulling Tony farther and farther away from Annalise until both of them were screaming. Nothing had come closer to breaking Tony’s resolve in Afghanistan than the forced separation from his daemon. That was when he’d lied and told them he’d build them their missile, when instead he and Yinsen had built the first iron man armour.

Annalise must have realized the same thing as he felt her shift to get a better look. “Poor thing,” she murmured low enough so only Tony could hear, “Rhodey didn’t mention anyone new to the Compound like us.” 

He nodded slightly at her words, returning his attention to their visitor who he saw had inched a little closer to the couch he and Annalise were sitting on. 

“I don’t think we’ve met,” he said, remaining as still as possible, “but it’s always nice to meet a fellow night owl in a compound full of early risers. I’m Tony, though you probably know that, and this,” he gestured a hand to his daemon, “is Annalise.”

Annalise moved farther out onto Tony’s shoulder and waved one thin, jointed leg. “Hello,” she called.

The mouse daemon didn’t say anything but sat up on its haunches and cocked its head. Tragic backstory or not, their furry mystery guest was ridiculously cute.

“A being of few words,” Tony nodded sagely after a moment. “I can respect that. Quiet and dignified.”

As always, Annalise was quick to pick up on her cue. “Nothing like you, then.”

He turned his head to shoot his daemon an annoyed look. “I can be quiet and dignified.”

“I love you, but no, you can’t”, Annalise scoffed. “You would talk to the walls out of desperation if there was no one else around. I’ve seen you do it.”

“That was once, it was a perfectly lovely wall, and I had a perfectly valid excuse.”

“ ’Because you got high’ is not an excuse, Tony,” she countered, waving her two front legs in exasperation. “And I’m sure the only reason the wall didn’t make a run for it when you started lecturing it on quantum entanglement was because it was stuck to the floor.”

“I’m sure it was dazzled with my brilliance,” he said with a sniff.

“Bedazzled, maybe. It was the crystal display in a New Age store.”

Tony furrowed his brow in confusion. “Why was I in a New Age store?”

“Because you got high.”

About to respond, Tony paused when he heard a light, feminine chuckle that didn’t come from Annalise. He looked down to see the mouse daemon scamper a few steps closer then sit down again, watching Tony and Annalise with humor in her eyes. Score another win for ‘The Tony and Annalise Show’, he thought with a wry grin. 

“Well, anyway,” he said with a wink to their audience of one, “I can appreciate quiet and dignity in others, how about we leave it at that. Was there something I can-”

Just then distant voices spilled into the hallway outside the common room, a group of Compound residents returning from a night in the city it sounded like. In a flash the tiny mouse daemon darted away and out of sight.

“Wait …,” Tony called, but it was too late. Their curious visitor had vanished.

* * *

Tony still had the peculiar encounter on his mind when he sat down next to Rhodey in the conference room the following morning, a welcome distraction from the topic of the upcoming meeting. Perched on Rhodey’s shoulder, his friend’s great horned owl daemon Galilea nodded in greeting and after a moment Rhodey himself looked up from the paperwork in front of him with a tight smile.

“Hey, Tones. Are you ready for this?”

Sighing, Tony sat back in his chair. “It’s happening whether I’m ready or not, isn’t it? At least I won’t have to deal with them directly after this. Conflict of interest and all that.”

“Yep. They’re someone else’s headache now. So, why do you have your ‘I have a problem that can’t be solved with a soldering iron and a blowtorch’ expression on.”

“I am highly offended that you think there is anything I can’t solve with a soldering iron and a blowtorch,” Tony said with mock offense.

“There’s nothing you don’t _think_ you can’t solve with a soldering iron and a blowtorch. Right up until someone catches on fire,” Galilea muttered with a disgruntled ruffle of her feathers, giving Tony a yellow-eyed glare. “I remember when you said the same thing about the wiring in the apartment at MIT.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “That was years ago, and the few tailfeathers of yours I singed grew back just fine. Are you ever going to let that go?” 

“Absolutely not,” Galilea said, clicking her beak at him once before pointedly turning away.

Rhodey smirked in response to their needling. “Come on, out with it. What’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

He hesitated. It was tempting to mention the silent daemon to Rhodey, get his friend’s opinion on the strange little visitor, but glancing at the rapidly filling room he decided against it. The social stigma against bond pairs who could separate for any amount of time was strong. He trusted Rhodey and the other new Avengers members without question, they had all accepted Tony and Annalise after all, but it didn’t feel right putting another bond pair under scrutiny they hadn’t asked for. All sensitive areas in the Compound were protected against intrusion by even the smallest or sneakiest of daemons, anyway. If the daemon and her bonded didn’t want to disclose their ability to separate, they weren’t required to. 

For the same reason, Tony had refrained from asking FRIDAY who was mouse daemon’s bonded, even though the mystery was killing him. They would introduce themselves, or they wouldn’t. It wasn’t Tony’s place to track them down just to satisfy his curiosity.

“I had an interesting visitor last night, that’s all,” Tony said finally, shaking his head. 

Rhodey gave him a searching look, but obviously decided to let it go for now. “Alright. If you’re sure. So how is Peter adjusting to becoming your second-in-command?” 

Tony accepted the subject change with relief and spent the time remaining before the meeting expounding on how Peter was flourishing under his new responsibilities and what the young man had learned from his occasional missteps.

He was just about to share a particularly amusing anecdote involving Peter and his two partners-in-crime when the room fell silent around them. Tony closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath, before he schooled his features and looked towards the open door. 

Steve stood in the doorway, looking back.

Tony had wondered what this would be like, seeing Steve after all these years. To be in the same room for the first time since the other man had lied to him, beat him down, and left him to die in the frigid cold of Siberia. 

Somewhat to Tony’s surprise, there wasn’t rage, or the familiar sting of betrayal. There was no grief left over their shattered friendship, or bitterness at once again being the one left to the bear the repercussions of all their mistakes, or the desolate feeling of abandonment that, in his weaker moments, had found him reaching for that ancient cellphone and fighting the temptation to call if only to hear Steve’s voice. There was no desire left for vindication, for Steve to be forced to admit that the Accords Tony had tirelessly helped rewrite and improve, that Steve been so quick to vilify and discard, were working, providing both accountability and protections to all those who operated under it. There wasn’t even the petty satisfaction that, while Steve and the others had been hiding uselessly in Wakanda, the Avengers program had moved forward and expanded, establishing teams around the globe, leaving his former teammates to watch as the world moved on without them.

Instead, there was only a sense of relief, of a weight falling from his shoulders. After this meeting, the last loose end from their ‘Civil War’ would be fastened off and he could leave that entire dark chapter of his life behind him. He was done spending his emotional energy on his old team, and any debt or obligation he had to them was paid. Here Steve stood, allowed to return once he signed the Accords only because of Tony’s hard work, and all Tony can think was ‘it’s over’.

“Have a seat, Captain Rogers,” Rhodey said briskly after a moment, breaking the tension in the room. “The meeting will begin shortly.”

Steve finally looked away from Tony and nodded to Rhodey. “Of course, Colonel,” he said evenly before choosing one of the remaining seats at the far end of the table, his American badger daemon Eilidh walking beside him. 

Once the last few people filed in, the door was closed and Rhodey addressed those gathered.

“As many of you are aware, the UN Sokovia Accords Council has been in negotiations with the former Avengers residing in Wakanda. After some debate, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff, along with Scott Lang who aided them during the Zemo Affair, have been granted clemency for their actions during that time on the condition they either retire or sign the updated Accords and work under them with the Avengers for a period of ten years, with a probationary period of three years. James Barnes has been offered a similar arrangement, with the additional requirements that he provides as full a recounting as possible of his actions as the Winter Soldier to the International Criminal Court and that he is evaluated by an independent medical team to confirm any possible control HYDRA had over him has been removed.”

Steve clenched his jaw in response the last statements but remained silent. Tony had not been a part of the negotiating team, but he had heard from them that Steve had fought those final conditions until Barnes himself had finally put his foot down, saying he would agree to them whether Steve approved or not. Given time and distance, Tony could even sympathize with Steve up to a point. After Siberia, he had researched every scrap of information he could find on the Winter Soldier. The details of the torture James Barnes had endured were horrifying, including HYDRA’s clinical description of how Barnes’s bulldog daemon Liana disappeared after repeated electroshock treatments to Barnes. Tony had found it hard to hold onto much of his remaining anger at Barnes after learning he had endured that.

“Captain Rogers,” Rhodey continued, “you are present at this governing committee meeting as a representative of the returning members. We would appreciate your input on assignments for yourself and the others during their probationary period, but the final decision belongs to this committee.”

Taking a deep breath, Steve drew himself up and squared his shoulders. “Respectfully, I believe separating my team would be a mistake. We are already an effective unit, have worked together for years and are aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We have agreed to abide by the Accords,” he said, bitterness faint but present in his words. “Surely it would make more sense to leave us together.”

Rhodey steepled his fingers and studied Steve for a moment. “As far as I am aware, you and your team have been consigned to Wakanda for the last five years. It certainly wouldn’t be in your interest to imply you have participated in further breaking international law and violating sovereign borders in your time away. Lithuania is still looking for the vigilantes who disrupted a sensitive operation two years ago and turned a controlled situation into a shootout.” When Steve remained silent, Rhodey continued. “Captain,” he said, “what you propose has been discussed, but it is our opinion, and the opinion of the Accords Council, that such an arrangement would be a mistake at this time.”

“Colonel,-” Steve began, but Carol cut him off before he could start the argument he was obviously gearing up for.

“We don’t trust you,” Carol said, her lion daemon Mattias glaring at her side. Steve turned to her, looking shocked at her blunt words, but Carol continued, relentless. “We don’t trust your judgement, your leadership, or your ability to listen to anyone else. And we don’t trust your team not to follow wherever you lead. You all need to rebuild the trust you threw away five years ago. Once your probationary period is over, we can revisit your proposal, but until then I would suggest you work where you are assigned or accept your retirement.”

Almost inevitably, Steve turned to Tony. Tony wasn’t sure what Steve was looking for, but it was obvious he didn’t find it.

Steve pressed his lips into a firm line before turning back to Rhodey. “I’ll need to discuss this with my team. We were expecting more value to be placed on the suggestions of experienced Avengers members.”

Rhodey raised an eyebrow at the implied insult but nodded. “If you do not wish to be a part of this discussion, you are dismissed. Your assignments will be sent to you individually should you or the others wish to remain with the Avengers. The Accords Council will be in touch.”

Steve nodded tightly and stood, he and his daemon stalking out of the room.

Tony sighed as the door swung shut. That had been a mess, but at least it wasn’t a mess Tony had to deal with.

* * *

It was FRIDAY who notified him of their next silent visitor.

He was chatting idly with Annalise while he prepared lunch for himself when his phone pinged from the counter beside him. He frowned, wondering why FRIDAY hadn’t just told him over the speakers whatever she wanted him to know, until he read the notification. He paused for a moment then took down another plate from the cupboard and pulled out more bread.

“It’s generally considered rude to sneak up on people, Winter Wonder.”

He heard the quiet scuff of shoes behind him, certainly only done for Tony’s benefit. “Sorry, I can go,” came the soft response.

“It’s a communal kitchen, Barnes,” Tony sighed, putting slices of turkey and swiss cheese on two of the slices of bread. “I’m not going to kick you out. Certainly not if your metabolism is anything like Steve’s.” 

He spread a layer of mayonnaise, added lettuce, tomato, and bacon, and finished off the sandwiches. Holding out his arm for Annalise to climb onto, he picked up both plates after his daemon had settled on his shoulder and turned around.

Barnes stood uncertainly just inside the entrance to the kitchen. Shoulders hunched and scraggly dark hair falling around his lowered head, he hardly resembled the fabled Winter Soldier Tony had read so much about, or the smiling Bucky Barnes who stood next to Cap in all of Howard’s pictures from the war. He felt a something twist in his heart at the absence of Barnes’s daemon Liana, Bucky’s loyal and jovial companion in all of Howard’s stories, destroyed by an organization cruel beyond all measure. Tony shook his head before placing both plates on the table and gesturing to the one across from him. 

“Sit down and eat up, Terminator. I’m not going to bite.”

Barnes studied him with haunted eyes, fingers worrying the worn sleeves of his drab green army jacket, before nodding and tentatively lowering himself into the indicated seat. 

Tony sat as well and began determinedly eating his sandwich as if there was nothing strange at all about sharing a meal with the man across from him. Fake it ‘till you make, Tony thought with tired humor. Barnes pulled the plate closer before picking his sandwich up and eating as well.

For all that had happened between and because of them, it was a surprisingly peaceful moment.

Tony leaned back in the chair after finishing and studied the bowed head in front of him. “Alright, Jack Frost. Want to tell me why you’re here? I chose this kitchen specifically because Steve and the rest were less likely to find it.”

Barnes looked up briefly before returning to his intense study of the rather unremarkable plate.

“Now that I had the chance, I wanted to say I was sorry,” he said quietly, almost in a whisper. “For your parents, for Steve, for everything. I know it doesn’t mean much, after all this time, but I’m sorry. I just wanted you to know that. That’s all.”

He moved to stand, but Tony spoke before he could.

“Barnes, look at me,” he said gently. When the other man met his eyes, Tony gave his arm an encouraging squeeze before letting go. “What Steve chose to hide from me is not your fault, and what happened to my parents was not your choice. I understand that. You are doing your best to make amends for the rest.” With a self-depreciating grin, he added, “And I owe you my own apologies.”

Barnes shook his head. “I don’t blame you for none of that.” 

“Well, Freeze Pop, I don’t know if I deserve that,” Tony huffed, picking up the dirty plates as he stood and walking them to the sink, “but if you want to agree to wipe the slate clean between us, I’m not opposed.”

Barnes was quiet for some time before nodding slightly. “I’d like that.” 

“Sounds like a plan, then.” Tony walked back to the table where Barnes sat and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Anthony Edward Stark, but you can call me Tony. This is Annalise.”

Tony realized he may have misstepped, introducing his own daemon when Barnes’s daemon no longer existed for him to do the same, but a bemused Barnes only rose to his feet and took Tony’s hand. “James Buchanan Barnes,” he said, “but everyone calls me Bucky.”

Tony huffed as he shook Barnes … Bucky’s hand once, then let go. “I am morally offended that a man who could bench press a jetliner goes by the name ‘Bucky’.”

“Tony,” Annalise groaned in exasperation. “You were doing so well.”

A hint of humor entered Bucky’s expression. “Them’s the breaks, I guess.”

Tony snorted in surprised laughter. “Yeah, I guess so. See you around then, Tastee Freeze?”

“Yeah, see you,” he said, lips curling into a slight smile. “Thank you for the sandwich, Tony. Annalise.” He nodded to them both in goodbye before ducking his head and leaving the way he had come.

Tony watched him go, feeling lighter than he had in a while.

* * *

“Okay. So this is going to sound kind of crazy, but hear me out,” Scott Lang said in excitement as he rushed through the door into the shared lab space Tony had reserved for the two of them. 

Tony didn’t bother biting back a groan. 

“Ah, come on, man. I’ve got this great idea. What about we upgrade the Widow Bites to include a tiny inflatable cat. You know, maybe Natasha and Kostya are sneaking around, and a bad guy is getting too close, and BAM! Natasha shoots the cat in the other direction and it inflates to full size. We can add a tiny speaker so it can meow! The bad guy looks around, is distracted by the cat, and POW! The Black Widow takes them out. Score another one for the good guys!” Scott finished, smiling widely.

Tony just gave him a look, before turning to Scott’s golden retriever daemon Haisley sitting beside the excited engineer. “Really?”

Haisley gave him a doggie grin. “I think it’s a fabulous idea,” she said innocently.

“That’s because you’re secretly a troll.” He looked back up at the eager man almost bouncing on his heels in anticipation. “Scott, I can’t let you do that.”

It was heartbreaking to see Scott’s face fall, but Tony told himself to stay firm.

“But, why?” Scott almost whined in disappointment. “It would be so cool.”

“Because I actually like you now. Aside from Bucky, you are by far the least annoying of your little group.” He reached out to grip Scott’s shoulder. “It would be a shame to find Natasha had murdered you in her sleep.”

Scott grimaced, then frowned. “Don’t you mean ‘in _my_ sleep’?”

“Do you really think Natasha would need to be awake to murder you?” Tony asked him pityingly.

To other man sighed. “No, I guess not.” But like the puppy he was, Scott perked up immediately. “But you like me now?” he asked, smile returning.

Tony rolled is eyes before turning back to the Widow Bite he was taking apart. “Don’t let it go to your head. Now come over here so I can show you how the Widow Bites are _supposed_ to work,” he grumbled, but the truth was Scott had grown on him since his return. Not long after Bucky had made his apology, Scott had found him to make his own and had asked if there was anything he could do to thank Tony for helping to make the pardons happen. When Tony had suggested Scott take over the design and upkeep of his old teammates’ gear, he had jumped at the chance.

Once Scott’s Captain America hero worship had worn off a little, and he had a chance to see Hank Pym’s opinion of Tony wasn’t exactly free of bias, things between the two of them improved considerably. Tony was actually coming to enjoy their sessions together. Since Bruce had left, Tony had missed having someone in the lab to just putter around with.

Aside from a few zapped fingers when Scott got a little too enthusiastic, the lab session went by quickly. They were just beginning to pack up, Tony dispensing a few final pointers about the Widow Bite equipment, when Haisley perked up from where she had been stretched out beside Scott’s chair.

“Little one!” she called, off like a shot to the front of the lab where Scott had failed to close the door completely in his haste. She dropped onto her stomach when she reached the open door, head on her front paws and tail wagging quickly, ears pointed straight up in interest.

That was when Tony noticed a small brown head peaking around the door jamb.

Scott stood slowly from his chair, watching the scene with a worried expression. “Uh, Haisley, you know we’re not-” He stopped abruptly when the mouse daemon inched closer to Haisley. His eyes became huge when the small daemon touched noses with the much larger daemon. Haisley’s tail was now going like mad, and she scooted closer to gently nudge the little furry daemon with her nose.

“Aww,” Annalise cooed quietly in Tony’s ear.

The mouse daemon gave Haisley a final nuzzle before venturing further into the lab space towards Tony and Scott, the golden retriever daemon following eagerly. When the little daemon reached the foot of the lab table Scott and Tony were working on, Tony leaned over to look over the side and smiled. 

“Hey there, Squirt. Haven’t seen you for a bit.” 

The mouse daemon took a few steps closer then sat on her haunches and looked up him with bright, curious eyes. 

“Something I can do for you?” he asked, watching as the daemon nodded and then looked towards Annalise perched on his shoulder hopefully. “I think Remy wants you to come down, Annalise.”

“No need to ask me twice,” she said with glee, skittering along his arm and then down the leg of the table. When she was on level with the mouse daemon she tentatively reached out with one of her legs. 

“Hello again,” she said softly, then giggled as the furry daemon sniffed at her outstretched leg. Growing bolder, Annalise gently pet the other daemon on the head once, then giggled again when the mouse daemon nudged her leg for more.

Grinning from ear to ear, he looked over his shoulder to say something to Scott but stopped short when he saw the other man gaping, looking between Tony and the daemons in shock.

Tony bristled. “Something wrong, Lang?” Seeing a lone daemon was unusual, but not unheard of with the harsh backgrounds of many of the Avengers. If Scott was going to have a problem with bond pairs who could separate significantly, better to know about it now before Tony and Annalise invested any more time into their growing friendship with him.

Scott’s mouth snapped close and he shook his head quickly. “What? No. It’s just, I thought …” He paused, tilting his head to the side as he studied the three daemons, Haisley having insinuated herself into the proceedings and looking pleased as punch to have the two other daemons perched on her head. Finally, Scott shrugged and looked back at Tony, a smile slowly forming on his face. “Just surprised. That’s the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while.”

Relaxing at Scott’s genuine pleasure, Tony felt his grin returning and nodded in agreement. “Rizzo there’s been a bit skittish, but it looks like she’s coming out of her shell a bit.” Straightening up, he gestured to the mess of Widow Bite parts still on the table. “Come on, let’s finish this up and leave them to it.” 

Scott watched the daemons get themselves situated for an impromptu cuddle with a pleased, if somewhat puzzled, expression, then murmured something to himself about ‘listening to the wrong people again’. He shook his head and turned back to finish their previous discussion.

* * *

Tony found himself enjoying the next several months of relative peace. New villains kept popping up and the galaxy as a whole was more aware of Earth than anyone was comfortable with since their defeat of Thanos, but the Accords were working well and the Avengers teams around the world had so far easily overcome any threats. He and Scott blew things up in the lab, he and Bucky were tentatively working their way towards a friendship based in large part on science fiction marathons and quiet meals, and the mysterious little mouse daemon appeared periodically, though never when anyone but Scott was around.

This day in particular was a beautiful and sunny. The last of his meetings were finished and none of them had been more annoying than usual, Scott had been over the moon when Tony okayed one of his less outlandish ideas for a new upgrade, and Tony and Annalise were looking forward to introducing Bucky to the wonders of Firefly that evening. It was a good day.

So of course, Steve was waiting for him after his final meeting.

“Tony!” Steve called as he walked out of the conference room, he and Eilidh quickly catching up to them in the hallway. “Could I talk to you, just for a minute? Please,” he added quietly when Tony started to shake his head. “We haven’t spoken more than a handful of words to each other since I got back from Wakanda, and I really think we need to.”

“We’ve been doing just fine, Steve,” Tony said, rubbing a hand down his face then looking at the earnest man in front of him. “The Compound is large enough for the both of us. You do your thing, I do my thing, and never the twain shall meet. See, everybody’s happy.”

“Please, Tony.”

“Might as well get it over with, Tony,” Annalise muttered. “Quicker we hear them out, the quicker we can tell them to get lost.”

Steve frowned at the spider daemon and Eilidh grumbled from her place beside Steve. Tony sighed.

“Fine, where do you want to do this?”

“It’s such a pretty day, I thought we could walk outside?” he suggested, face clearing, eager now that Tony had agreed. “Like we used to do when the Tower got to be too much and we’d go down to Bryant Park.”

“That was a long time ago, Cap,” Tony said, but gestured for Steve to lead the way. He followed the other man and his daemon out of the Compound and onto one of the jogging paths that extended from the main building into the surrounding woods. The silence between them was tense and awkward and Tony soon grew impatient. Once they were well away from prying ears, he stopped walking. Eilidh, always the quicker of the two, stopped immediately. Steve took a few steps more before he realized Tony was no longer beside him and turned back to him.

“Tony? Is something wrong?” he asked in apparent confusion. Tony had to bite his cheek not to snap at the frankly absurd question. Steve always did have a talent for being purposely oblivious when it suited him.

“Alright, Steve,” he said instead, reining in his temper. “We’re here. You wanted to talk, so talk.”

Steve shared a look with his daemon and sighed, as if he couldn’t understand why Tony was being difficult, and that didn’t help Tony’s temper at all. “I just, I wanted the two of us to try to move forward, to move past everything. It’s been over five years, Tony. Don’t you want to put all this in the past?”

“What exactly about this situation says I haven’t moved forward?” he asked in exasperation, crossing his arms. “The Accords are amended and working well, the Avengers Initiative has expanded with new members every day, and I lead my own team with members I can trust. Tell me, exactly, how I haven’t ‘moved forward’?”

“You’re still angry. With me, with the team. That’s not moving forward. For all of this,” Steve said with a gesture towards the bustling Compound, “you’re still stuck in the past when it comes to us, with me.”

“I’m not ‘stuck in the past’ when it comes to you, Steve.” He held up a hand when the other man opened his mouth to argue. “I’ve left you in the past. And that is a big difference.”

“I’m your friend, Tony. I made a mistake. It was a terrible, selfish mistake, but I’ve apologized. What more can I do?”

“It wasn’t a ‘mistake’, Steve!” Tony growled. “It wasn’t a bad call in the middle of a firefight or making the wrong decision because you didn’t know all the facts and there wasn’t time. It was a choice. It was a choice you and Eilidh made every day from the day you learned about my parents’ death to the day you tried to lie about it in that bunker. It was a choice you made every time you used my money and my resources to look for my parents’ killer while keeping me in the dark! 

“And it wasn’t just a choice you two made. Natasha and Lyaksandr found out the same time you did. They could have told me at any time. There is no way Natasha didn’t tell Clint, so that was a choice he and Oriana made too. And even if you didn’t tell Wilson everything, he and Makena must have known something wasn’t right when you kept your search for Bucky a secret from me.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “So no, Steve. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a choice. It was a choice you all made every day for years, and it’s not something I can just forgive and forget. Not if I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror.”

Steve took a step closer, reaching out, but stopped when Tony stepped back. “I never meant to hurt you, Tony. I just want to fix this. I miss my friend.”

“You never meant to hurt me, because you never meant me to know. You were never going to tell me the truth. There’s no way to fix that, Steve. That’s kind of my point.”

“Let’s go, Tony,” Annalise murmured. 

Tony nodded and turned around to walk back toward the Compound.

Steve stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Please, Tony. You forgave Bucky. Scott and Haisley can’t stop talking about what you all get up to in the lab. If you can do that for people you never knew, shouldn’t you give the rest of us a chance?”

Tony shook Steve’s arm off, and thankfully the other man let go. “There was no history there, Steve. Not like the rest of us. There was no friendship for them to betray. That doesn’t make it harder to forgive them. It makes it infinitely easier.”

This time when he walked away, Steve let him.

* * *

“Well, damn.”

Hands on his hips, Tony stood gazing forlornly at what was left of his silver Aston Martin One-77 after some villain who could control plants with his mind had the bright idea to attack Tony and Annalise on their way to an SI meeting in the city. Of course, thanks to the nanoparticles, Tony was never truly without the Iron Man suit and the fight had been ridiculously short, but this poor sleek beauty had paid the price.

Now he and Annalise were standing in one of the Compound’s garage bays debating whether it was even worth trying to restore the sad, crumpled form. Walking trees were hell on a car, apparently. Lord of the Rings never mentioned that.

There was a metallic screech as something gave way and the driver’s side door fell to the floor with a resounding clang. Tony sighed.

“Better the car than you, Tony,” Annalise said pragmatically. “At least it wasn’t the Bugatti.”

Tony just sighed again.

A frantic scampering sound distracted him from the mournful wreckage and he looked up in time to see the small mouse daemon slip on the smooth floor as it rounded the wheels of another vehicle in the bay. She quickly regained traction and dashed towards them, only stopping when she was inches away from the toes of Tony’s shoes. The furry daemon sat back on her haunches, looking between Tony and Annalise, whiskers twitching anxiously.

“Hey, there, short stuff,” Tony soothed, crouching down to see her better. “What’s got you in such a hurry?”

The small daemon just took another hop-step closer and looked at him with concerned eyes.

“Oh, little one, were you worried about us?” Annalise asked as she skittered down Tony’s arm. He lowered his hand to the concrete floor so she could climb off and once she was on the ground the other daemon approached and looked her over closely. 

Annalise allowed the examination for a minute before gently reaching out to stroke the furry daemon’s head. “I’m fine, little one. We’re both fine. Nothing Tony and I couldn’t handle.”

“Yeah, Pipsqueak. It would take more than a botanist with delusions of grandeur to take the two of us down,” Tony said easily. The glare the little daemon threw him expressed more than words how little she appreciated his cavalier attitude. “Ah, come on. There’s no need for that. What’s with the attitude? We’re fine, the villain is behind bars, all’s well that ends well, right?”

“From the state of that car, I think you may be downplaying things a bit,” came a quiet voice. Tony glanced up from where he was crouched to see Bucky had come into the bay. Tony looked back down, expecting the mouse daemon to run off, but she remained where she was, still allowing Annalise to pet her. That surprised him. The little daemon had shown up a number of times now when Tony and Annalise were alone, and a few times when they were with Scott and Haisley, but whenever anyone else approached she was quick to disappear. Curious.

Tony looked back up to where Bucky was watching him with a worried frown. “Honestly, Snowflake, the Poison Ivy wannabe was nothing. Most of the damage came at the end because the car happened to be in the way of an army of maple Ents. Annalise and I weren’t in it.”

Bucky nodded and smiled slightly. He came a few steps closer, still tentative in approaching Tony despite the all of the conversations they’d had, but Tony didn’t take it personally. He still saw more of Bucky than nearly anyone else in the compound, Steve and the other Rogues included from what he’d heard. Apparently their movement had been pretty restricted in Wakanda and Bucky was taking advantage of having the entire Compound at his disposal to get some distance from them.

Tony saw him look down at the two daemons who had moved on to make a very tiny cuddle pile and felt his heart twist at the wistful expression on Bucky’s face. He wondered if Bucky’s Liana would have joined them had she survived. A distraction was probably in order.

“So you came down to check on little ol’ us?” Tony teased lightly when Bucky crouched down next to him, enjoying the slight blush and awkward shrug that earned him.

“We were worried,” Bucky mumbled, embarrassed, not taking his eyes away from the two daemons.

Tony cocked his head and looked behind Bucky, but didn’t see anyone else. “We?” he asked.

Bucky shot him a glance, considering, before turning back to the pair of daemons and lowering his hand.

The mouse daemon gave Annalise one last nuzzle before running up Bucky’s hand and arm and into one of the pockets of his army jacket.

Tony’s jaw dropped, shocked at the casual way Bucky had just touched someone else’s daemon, but then things started slotting into place.

“ _Shy, but wise_ ,” he quoted softly, part of a nursery rhyme about daemons Jarvis had taught him years ago, “ _the mouse knows how to survive_. Hydra thought they destroyed Liana. But they didn’t, did they?”

“They tried,” Bucky whispered, hand coming up to cover the pocket the daemon had hid in. “They were certain they had. But Liana changed, somehow, even though she’d been settled for years. She hid for decades, only coming out when I was alone. I didn’t remember my own name, didn’t know anything but my orders, but I knew she was important.”

“The poor dear,” Annalise said. Tony extended his own hand and she was quick to climb back up to his shoulder. “Does anyone else know?”

“Steve and the others do.” Bucky grimaced. “The Witch could sense her.”

Tony made his own face at the mention of Wanda and stood, Bucky dropping his hand and following suit. Tony smiled when a tiny brown head poked out of Bucky’s pocket.

“You two are the first to know outside of them, though,” Bucky said, looking down at his daemon with a soft expression.

“Yeah?” Tony beamed. “It was our dashing good looks, wasn’t it?” he asked the mouse daemon with a wink. “Or our sparkling wit?”

The little daemon snorted while Annalise just sighed a long suffering, “ _Tony_.”

“It’s because of that,” Bucky said with a shy grin. “You talk to her.”

Tony blinked, looking between Bucky and his daemon. “Why wouldn’t I talk to her?”

“None of the others do. She doesn’t talk, so they don’t talk to her.” Bucky shrugged and frowned unhappily. “Apparently they thought it would be more ‘respectful’, but I think she just makes them nervous. Except Scott,” Bucky said, brightening slightly. “He and Haisley have started talking to her after they saw her interacting with the two of you.”

“Ah,” Tony said. Scott’s mutterings made so much more sense now. “Well, I talk enough for ten people, so it’s not like it’s a hardship. Besides, she certainly has no trouble making herself understood. Those eyes of hers alone are ridiculously expressive.” 

Bucky ran a gentle thumb over the mouse daemon’s head, not looking up when he asked in a quiet voice, “We don’t make you uncomfortable?”

Tony shook his head. “Annalise and I understand dealing with changes you have no control over. You should have seen how people treated us when word leaked we could separate after what we experienced in Afghanistan. We seldom do, but just the fact that we can makes people uneasy.” 

“We understand, Bucky,” Annalise said firmly. ‘And we certainly won’t treat you differently.”

Bucky released a shuddering breath. “Thank you”

“You’re welcome,” Tony said, reaching out to squeeze his arm once before letting go. 

They stood in companionable silence for a moment when there was another metallic groan from the crumpled form next to them. Tony looked over just in time for a warped fender to come crashing down.

He sighed.

“We could help? Liana and I used to be fair hands at the garage back in Brooklyn,” Bucky offered hopefully. The little daemon poked her head a little further out of Bucky’s pocket, looking on with interest.

“I think I’d like that,” Tony said with a grin.

With that, they got to work.

**Author's Note:**

> There really was a trick arrow cat that acted as a [distraction](https://www.ranker.com/list/lame-comic-book-devices/ranker-comics).
> 
> I don't post often, but I can be found here on [Tumblr](http://arboreal-elm-ash-oak.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> I'd love to hear from you. Comments are food for the fic writer's soul. :)


End file.
